Saints under the cloud of their sinners

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EVEN as he served his time in jail for his part in rape, the
polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs could take some comfort,
knowing that his most holy place, the Yearning for Zion Ranch, in
Texas, awaited him.

Now its future is clouded, and another of Jeffs' associates in
the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is
under investigation for sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl who
allegedly has borne his child. The YFZ Ranch, as it is known, was
still occupied by police and Texas Rangers yesterday after the
teenage mother's complaint of abuse.

Dale Barlow, 50, who is said to have fathered the child, had
been found elsewhere and was being questioned, said Schleicher
County assistant district attorney Allison Palmer.

Earlier, 159 children and 60 women were removed from the ranch,
which the sect established in 2004 in a remote pocket of west Texas
about 200 kilometres from the border with Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services, Marleigh
Meisner, said 18 children considered to be either victims of abuse
or at risk of abuse had been taken into legal custody after the
raid.

Ms Meisner said it was not known if the 16-year-old whose
complaint triggered the raid was in custody. "We still have law
enforcement out there looking for other children," she said.

Jeffs, 53, who is reputed to have dozens of wives, including
some inherited from his father, was jailed for 10 years last
November for insisting that a girl of 14 consummate her marriage to
a cousin of 19.

That offence took place in Utah at a 12,000-strong
fundamentalist Mormon community renowned for expelling hundreds of
teenage boys known as the Lost Boys, presumably because they
represented "competition" for church elders in a choice of
wives.

Locals in the Texas town of Eldorado have not noticed the same
expulsions of young males from the YFZ Ranch.

"This was his new Zion," said Randy Makin, editor of the local
newspaper, The Eldorado Success. "He was bringing his most
righteous, his most deserving followers here They were here
to await the return of the Lord."

He said only a few men from the ranch ever appeared in town. The
women were never seen.

Cult leaders had claimed that 120 people lived at the ranch, he
said, but it seems at least twice that number were there.

Ms Palmer said that despite initial fears of hostility from sect
members, police and Texas Rangers were allowed to search the entire
property.

"It appears that their place of worship is a very special place
to them, where outsiders are not welcome," she said. "It offended
them that outsiders would be entering."

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1207420297968-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/world/saints-under-the-cloud-of-their-sinners/2008/04/07/1207420297968.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2008-04-08Saints under the cloud of their sinnersIan Munro, New YorkWorldhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/world/children-freed-from-sect-after-abuse-claim/2008/04/06/1207420196455.htmlChildren freed from sect after abuse claimtext/html-document